Luke 19:28-44 - Jesus Approaching
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
[READING - Luke 19:28-44]
28 After He had said these things, He was going on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village ahead of you; there, as you enter, you will find a colt tied on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. 31 “If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of it.’ ” 32 So those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They said, “The Lord has need of it.” 35 They brought it to Jesus, and they threw their coats on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As He was going, they were spreading their coats on the road. 37 As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, 38 shouting: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” 40 But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” 41 When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. 43 “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, 44 and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
[PRAYER]
[CONTEXT] Jesus has been going up to Jerusalem for a while. In Luke 9:51 we are told…
51 When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem;
The ascension in Luke 9:51 refers to Jesus being taken up on the cross. Jesus was determined to face the cross.
He told His disciples it was coming. He told them that He would perish in Jerusalem (Lk. 13:33). He told them that He would be handed over to the Jews and the Gentiles, that He would be mocked, mistreated, spit upon, scourged, and killed (Lk. 18:32-33). And still He was determined to face the cross.
And now in the second half of Luke 19, Jesus approaches the cross.
He won’t be crucified until Good Friday, but on Palm Sunday five days before, Jesus approaches.
You’ll notice that word ‘approach’ or that phrase ‘drew near’ in vv. 29, 37, and 41.
In this three APPROACHES we’ll see not only how Jesus was received by those who welcomed Him in Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday but also how we should welcome Him on this Palm Sunday.
[TS] Let’s look at the first APPROACH we see in this passage…
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
Approach #1: The King Approaches Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet (Luke 19:29-36)
Approach #1: The King Approaches Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet (Luke 19:29-36)
29 When He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village ahead of you; there, as you enter, you will find a colt tied on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. 31 “If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of it.’ ” 32 So those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They said, “The Lord has need of it.” 35 They brought it to Jesus, and they threw their coats on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As He was going, they were spreading their coats on the road.
[EXP] Jesus approached Jerusalem from Olivet or the Mount of Olives to the east. Bethany was on the eastern side of that mountain; Bethphage likely a little further along the path to Jerusalem. The olive trees were on the western slope coming down to the Kidron Valley, which lay between the Temple on Mount Zion (i.e., Jerusalem) and the mount called Olivet.
Jesus sent two disciples ahead of him to get the donkey—the young colt that no one had ever ridden. Whether Jesus divinely ordained or humanly prearranged this or both is beside the point—the point is that this is the way kings traveled, and this is the way King Jesus would ride into Jerusalem.
Jesus specifically intends to fulfill the prophesy of Zechariah 9:9…
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
The disciples recognized the kingly claim that Jesus was making and they were all for it.
Matthew tells us that some laid palm branches in the road. The palm was a symbol of Jewish nationalism and victory from intertestamental period—the time between the Old and New Testaments of the Bible (cf. 1 Macc. 13:51).
Obviously this is why we refer to it as palm Sunday.
But here Luke recorded that they put their coats on the donkey for Jesus to sit on while others spread their coats on the road before Him.
This was an act of honor and respect; an act of declaring Jesus as King just as the supporters of King Jehu had done in 2 Kings 9:13.
[ILLUS] Jehu became king of the northern kingdom of Israel about 800 years before Jesus was born. He had been a commander in Israel’s army before he was anointed king by God’s prophet Elisha (2 Kings 9:1-10).
Seizing upon Elisha’s anointing, Jehu’s fellow soldiers “hurried and each man took his garment and placed it under him on the bare steps, and blew the trumpet, saying, ‘Jehu is king!’” (2 Kings 9:13).
Jehu then went on a bloody rampage in which he killed Joram, the King of Israel that he was replacing; Ahaziah, king of Judah; Jezebel, the wicked wife of the late wicked King Ahab; and 70 or so of the remaining members of Ahab’s family.
Perhaps the disciples alongside Jesus on that first palm Sunday hoped that He would be a king like Jehu. One who would take the throne by force and kill all His enemies starting with the Romans.
But Jesus has different enemies in mind, larger enemies—the enemies of sin and death.
And He is the only one who need be killed to defeat those enemies.
[APP] Jesus cares about poverty. He cares about sickness. He cares about abuse. He cares about every wicked and evil thing that exists in this world—and He cares to end them all.
But all those things are caused by sin, which when full grown leads to death.
That’s why those are the first and the largest enemies that had to fall.
His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead is the King defeating the greatest enemies of His people.
To be sure, all other enemies will fall. Poverty will fall. Sickness will fall. Abuse will fall. Every wicked and every evil thing will fall when Jesus returns in His glory.
But for the moment we rejoice in proclaiming that the greatest enemies have already been done away with.
55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is why He rides into Jerusalem on a humble colt treading over palms and coats as King.
[TS] Notice the second APPROACH…
Approach #2: The King Approaches the Descent of the Mount of Olives (Luke 19:37-40)
Approach #2: The King Approaches the Descent of the Mount of Olives (Luke 19:37-40)
37 As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, 38 shouting: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” 40 But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!”
[EXP] Jesus came down the western side of the Mount of Olives within sight and earshot of Jerusalem and the Temple itself.
The crowd with Him was not just limited to the twelve disciples were also designated ‘Apostles’. Many others had joined the ranks as He passed through Jericho were He healed Bartimaeus and saved Zaccheus. John also tells us that it was just prior to this triumphal entry that Jesus very publically raised Lazarus from the dead.
All these began to praise God, rejoicing in the words of Psalm 118:26, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!”
We must understand that all this was taking place at the beginning of the Jewish celebration called Passover, which celebrated God rescuing His people from Egyptian slavery.
Every year God’s people would make pilgrimage to Jerusalem to rejoice in the salvation that God provided in the past and to look forward to the salvation that He would provide in the future when the Messiah—the Anointed One, the Savior—came.
As those Jewish pilgrims made there way into Jerusalem, they would be welcomed by the words of Psalm 118:26, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”
The one being welcomed in Psalm 118 was the Messianic King.
By welcoming Him in this way, Jesus disciples are making clear to everyone who hears—the King has come!
The Messiah has arrived!
The future salvation that Passover looked forward to has arrived!
The Pharisees—those legalistic enemies of Jesus—understood what Jesus’ disciples were saying, so they called on Jesus to rebuke His disciples.
But Jesus said that if they didn’t cry out, the stones would.
What stones?
Perhaps Jesus was referring to Habakkuk 2:11, which spoke of inanimate objects—like stones and wood—testifying against the wickedness of Babylon.
Maybe Jesus was saying that the wickedness of those who refused to welcome Him in Jerusalem—those like these Pharisees—was even greater than the wickedness of pagan Babylon.
But perhaps Jesus meant any stones or all the stones in creation.
Creation does indeed groan to be free of the curse that sin has brought upon it and worship its Creator in freedom.
But maybe Jesus had in mind the stones of the Temple, which were now in sight as He descended the Mount of Olives.
[ILLUS] When the Israelites finished the Tabernacle—the tent-like precursor to the Temple of stone, God’s glorious presence filled it. When Solomon finished the first stone Temple, God’s glorious presence filled it. But when God’s people filled that Temple with their idolatry and immorality, God left the Temple.
The Babylonians destroyed Solomon’s Temple, and even when Zerubbabel and others rebuilt it, God’s presence didn’t return.
Herod the Great—a Jewish puppet king installed by the Roman Empire—greatly expanded Zerubbabel’s temple to the extent that it became known as “Herod’s Temple.” Even so, God’s presence didn’t return.
But here came God in the flesh, riding on colt, hailed as His disciples as King, returning to His Temple.
I believe those stones recognized their Creator.
I believe those Temple stones recognized YHWH returning to His Temple.
I believe those stones would’ve cried out if no one else did.
[APP] We sometimes used the phrase “dumber than a rock”—(Not “dumber than a Rocky”, that’s a different phrase some other people use.)—But maybe this passage does give us warrant to think that we are dumber than a rock if we don’t praise Jesus as King, as Messiah, as Savior.
At the very least, we know that our hearts are hard as stone if we don’t recognize Him as King, Messiah, and Savior.
Jesus did everything possible to prove that He was the long awaited Jewish King who would save His people from their sins—and His people are not just the Jewish people but all those, Jew and Gentile alike, that trust in Him.
He fulfilled every prophecy.
He worked miracles that could only have been worked by God.
He taught with divine authority.
He did it all in public, in the open, not in some hidden corner of the world.
He raised the dead and would Himself rise from the dead.
How could anyone deny that He was the King?
How could anyone refuse to hail Him as King?
How can we refuse Him?
[TS] …
Approach #3: The King Approaches Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44)
Approach #3: The King Approaches Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44)
41 When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. 43 “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, 44 and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
[EXP] Down the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley, Jesus saw Jerusalem and wept. He didn’t weep because of its beauty or its history. He wept for its callousness and the judgment that had come and would come upon it—more specifically, its inhabitants.
The people of Jerusalem—the Jewish people in Jesus’ day—refused to recognize Jesus as Messiah. That would have led to peace between them and God on earth and ultimately to peace with God in Heaven (cf. Luke 19:38). Recognizing Jesus as Messiah would have abounded to the glory of God on earth as well as to the glory of God in the highest parts of Heaven (cf. Luke 19:38).
But instead they refused the peace that God offered them in Jesus as Messiah, so the reality of Jesus’ identity was hidden from them according to the judgment of God.
But there would be more judgment to come. Enemies would barricade themselves against Jerusalem, surrounding it, hemming it in, leveling it to the ground—both the city and its people.
Herod’s great Temple would be toppled, not one stone left on top of another.
Why would this happen?
Because they did not recognize Jesus as Messiah, as King, as the Savior they had been waiting for when He visited them.
[ILLUS] All of this came true in A.D. 70.
Some Jewish groups had been sporadically bucking the authority of the Roman Empire for awhile, but things came to a head in A.D. 66 when the Jews united to kick the Romans out of Jerusalem. Rome responded by laying siege to the city—building earthen mounds against its walls—before finally destroying it and killing thousands upon thousands of Jewish people in the city—just as Jesus foretold.
But while human historians say this happened because the Jews rebelled against Rome, the Jewish Messiah, Jesus, said this happened because the Jews rejected Him.
[APP] We need to learn to things from this:
(1) Everyone who refuses Jesus will face judgment.
(1) Everyone who refuses Jesus will face judgment.
No, the Romans won’t come and lay siege to your house, but when you die and step into eternity, God’s judgment will lay siege to you and His wrath will destroy you.
Why?
Because you refused to recognize Jesus as Messiah; you refused to bow to Him as King; you refused to call on Him as Savior.
You may think, “Well, that’s pretty graceless of God! I have to follow Jesus or I’ll be sent to hell? What kind of God does that?”
A just God does that.
And a gracious God sent His Son to take the wrath you deserved upon Himself.
Because God is perfectly just, He can’t simply dismiss or excuse sin. Sin must be paid for or else God wouldn’t be just—God wouldn’t be God.
Either you can pay for your sin in hell for all eternity or you can trust in Jesus who paid that price for you on the cross.
The choice is yours.
(2) We also need to learn that Jesus is not indifferent to the choice you make.
(2) We also need to learn that Jesus is not indifferent to the choice you make.
Jesus wants you to trust Him. He wants you to call on Him for salvation. He desires all men to repent and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Jesus wept for Jerusalem because He cared for Jerusalem! He cared for the people within its ancient walls! He wanted them to be saved! And He wants you to be saved!
Do not think that Jesus is eager to see you suffering in hell. He does not delight in the destruction of the wicked. Jesus is eager to rescue you from Satan, sin, and death! He delights in the salvation of sinners!
But call on Him today while He may be found.
If you continue to refuse Him, you may soon find that He is hidden from your sight.
[TS] …
Conclusion
Conclusion
Jesus approaches. In this passage, He approaches you this morning.
Will you receive Him as King who died and rose to free His people from the curse of sin and death?
Or will you refuse Him to your everlasting regret?
Receive Jesus and be saved.